Thursday 2 January 2014 16.00 EST
First published on Thursday 2 January 2014 16.00 EST

It will be hugely expensive, logistically challenging and has a very high probability of ending in crushing disappointment. But fan groups say that those England supporters planning a trip to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup will at least be guaranteed a ticket and the experience of a lifetime.

While other recent major tournaments have been marked by a rush for tickets and frantic calculations among members of the England fans' official supporters' club to see whether they have enough loyalty points to qualify for one, this time there should be more than enough to go around.

On top of the tickets on general sale, Fifa has confirmed that 8% of the capacity of each stadium will be reserved for fans of the competing teams. In all there are around 3m tickets on sale. Around 1m have been sold already, more than 22,000 of those to UK buyers.

England have become used to taking more than 10,000 fans to the big tournaments, even in South Africa, where huge swaths of the stadiums were draped with the flag of St George despite the often disappointing action on the pitch.

But informed estimates place the travelling army of fans at between just 2,000 and 5,000 this time around, with the already high cost of travelling to Brazil and eye-watering accommodation prices swollen further by the need to travel to Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, for the first match against Italy.

"The regular travellers really relish a tournament like this. The people that were in two minds about whether you can go, reading that you have to trek to Manaus is not great," said Football Supporters' Federation chief executive Kevin Miles, who will run fan embassies in each of the cities in which England play.

"But those who were planning to go anyway will be relishing the idea of England playing Italy in an unusual location."

He predicted that fans who are going will apply for tickets for the group stages but that pragmatism would mean fewer than usual would apply for the second round and quarter finals. Many would apply for a ticket for the final as well though "just in case", he said, in the expectation of leaping on a plane back to Brazil in the unlikely event that England reach it. Fifa will offer a resale service for tickets that can no longer be used.

The British ambassador to Brazil, Alex Ellis, said that fans who made the journey to Manaus would not regret it. "It's going to be quite an experience. If you want to see the real Brazil, go to Manaus. My advice would be to get there early," he said.

"It's a bit of Brazil that is less well known, but it's an area with deep historical links to the UK and we've really tried to reactivate those in recent years. It's the sustainability and biodiversity capital of the world."

After their opening match on 14 June, England will face Uruguay in São Paulo and Costa Rica in Belo Horizonte .

In contrast to the unrealistic expectations of previous tournaments, there is a widespread view that England will do well to get out of the group stages in Brazil such is the quality of the opposition. When the groups were drawn in early December, the Football Association chairman, Greg Dyke, was filmed jokingly drawing his hand across his throat to signify a "group of death".

England coach Roy Hodgson had offended the mayor of Manaus by saying he would rather not play there due to the extreme heat and humidity, but local officials have since stressed their enthusiasm for receiving England fans.

"It's a pleasure to receive the English people. It's a dream come true. It will be a great celebration and we will welcome everybody with open arms," said Miguel Capobiango Neto, who is overseeing World Cup preparations for the Amazonian state. "For the supporters and the British team, the welcome will be as warm as the weather."

Manaus is one of four host cities that faces a race against time to finish their stadium in time for the World Cup. An original deadline of December 2013 has already been pushed back to February or March and preparations have been delayed further by the deaths of four construction workers, two of them in Manaus.

Local reports say the cost of even a modest two-star hotel room has increased to £245 a night in some host cities, although others believe that prices will go down before the tournament as rooms go unfilled. Ellis said the price of accommodation was an issue and that the government recognised it was a problem. "It's actually a surprisingly expensive country. But the best of Brazil lies in the informal bits, the people are incredibly hospitable."

Travelling around the vast country is also likely to prove expensive, partly thanks to the decision not to base the group stages in geographical clusters.

Fifa said local organisers had insisted on spreading Brazil's matches throughout the country, meaning that all of the groups had to be similarly configured. It is understood the perceived mistake has been rectified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, a similarly vast host country, which will return to the system of geographical clusters.

Ellis said it was impossible to predict whether there would be a wave of popular protest across the country to rival the 1 million-plus who took to the streets during the Confederations Cup last June to highlight underinvestment in public services at a time when £2bn had been lavished on World Cup stadiums.

"Access to healthcare, access to transport, the economy. These are things that are still huge issues in the country and 2014 is a political year as well as a big football one," he said.

If you're heading to Brazil for the World Cup, you'll need this handy list of vital phrases – from how to apologise for making a mess of the country to dengue fever-themed chat-up lines, writes Stuart Heritage